Charles Fawcett Movies

Set in the wilds of South Africa, this Italian adventure chronicles the travails of three fugitive killers who search the jungle for a fabulous gold mine. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in Kentucky during the slavery days of the Old South, this adaptation of the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe tells of the workings of the underground railroad, a secretive system formed by whites and blacks which allowed slaves to escape into the northern states. This drama, directed in Yugoslavia by Hungarian Geza Radvanyi, tends to stray from the original story and contains many contradictions to historical fact. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This is the final entry in the Dr. Mabuse films a bad doctor wants to blow up Earth with a death ray and a giant concave mirror. He is thwarted by the brave hero. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This drama, based on a true story, chronicles the exploits of a gorgeous Greek actress who decrees that she will marry the winner of the 26-mile marathon at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens. It will be the first time the race has been run in 2,672 years. The actress does this because she is sure that her true-love will win. The real winner is a poor shepherd. Fortunately, the shepherd would rather marry another. The film contains actual Olympic Games footage. Much of the story was shot on location. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A colorful action film about the Battle Of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. in which the Spartans defend themselves for a Persian invasion against overwhelming odds. King Leodinas (Richard Egan) rallies the locals to stop the attack of thousands of plundering Persian invaders led by evil King Xerxes (David Farrar). Sir Ralph Richardson as Themistocles of Athens leads the international cast this the spectacular cinematic conflict that has more emphasis on action rather than historical accuracy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Rock Hudson stars in this frothy romantic comedy as filthy-rich American Robert Talbot. Talbot owns an Italian villa, where he traditionally stays only one month out of the year (September), but when Talbot suddenly decides to show up in July, Talbot's major overseer Maurice (Walter Slezak) is shocked out of his skin to see him -- it seems that Maurice has turned Talbot's villa into a hotel for the remaining eleven months of the year. But it's July in Italy, and love is in the air, and Talbot becomes distracted by the beautiful Lisa (Gina Lollobrigida) and soon he is trying to prevent her from marrying another man. Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin (in his first screen role) play young guests of the villa. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Maciste, here played by Kirk Morris, is instead a legendary Italian superhero of long standing. In this one, the mighty Mr. M journeys to seventeenth-century Scotland (this is Hell?) His foe is a fearsome Scottish witch who holds awesome power over the local wildlife, and for a while it looks like our hero will get killed. As with many other Maciste films, this Technicolor opus was bundled into the "Sons of Hercules" package syndicated to local TV stations in the mid-1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Italian screen goddess Sophia Loren made her American film debut with this glossy romantic adventure set (and partially filmed) on the Greek island of Hydra. Phaedra (Loren) is a female sponge diver who, while combing the waters, discovers the wreckage of a sunken ship with a number of fascinating artifacts, including a statue of a boy astride a dolphin. When Phaedra tells her boyfriend Rhif (Jorge Mistral) about the find, he is convinced that the statue is valuable, and he begins making plans to bring it to dry land for sale. Looking for help, they approach Dr. James Calder (Alan Ladd), an American archeologist working on a project for a Greek museum. Calder wants the statue but can't pay for it -- he wants Phaedra and Rhif to donate it to his museum as a remarkable example of Greek statuary. This is hardly what Rhif had in mind, so he turns to Victor Parmalee (Clifton Webb), a wealthy American art collector intrigued by the statue and other valuables that might be in the ship. Rhif and Victor make plans to salvage the ship's contents and send them back to America, for which Rhif will be paid handsomely. But Phaedra finds herself attracted to Calder, especially after she is disgusted by Victor's blunt offer to make her his mistress, and she begins a romance with the principled American. Now Phaedra and Calder must try to rescue the ship's valuables before Rhif and Parmalee can get to them. The love scenes between Sophia Loren and Alan Ladd presented something of a problem for director Jean Negulesco and his crew -- Ladd was 5' 4" and Loren was 5' 8", requiring him to stand on a box for two shots; for a scene where the two walked together along the beach, the crew dug a trench for Loren to walk in, so Ladd would appear taller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures. Some of the panoramic battle sequences are so expertly handled by second-unit director Mario Soldati that they appear to be Technicolor-and-Vistavision newsreel footage of the actual events. Still, the film falters dramatically, principally because of a lumpy script and King Vidor's surprisingly lustreless direction. In addition, the casting is wildly consistent: for example, while Audrey Hepburn is flawless as Natasha, Henry Fonda is far too "Yankeefied" as the introspective Pierre. Proving too long and unwieldy for most audiences, War and Peace died at the box office; far more successful was the epic, scrupulously faithful 1968 version, filmed in the Soviet Union. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Le Infedeli is graced by two internationally popular leading ladies: Italy's Gina Lollobrigida and Sweden's Mai Britt. The two actresses are but small portions of a larger plot mosaic, all about keeping up appearances no matter what the provocation. A group of "respectable" people are all partly responsible for the suicide of a servant girl. They are pounced upon by a wily blackmailer (Pierre Cressoy), who knows that these people will pay dearly rather than inform on themselves or others. The villain's comeuppance may seem a bit extreme, but it's undeniably satisfying. This Carlo Ponti-Dino DeLaurentiis production also features Irene Papas and Marina Vlady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During the Vatican Holy Year of 1950, confidence trickster Joe Brewster (Paul Douglas) disguises himself as a priest and heads to the Holy City. It is Brewster's intention to use his faux clerical garb to evade arrest by the American authorities. But through the influence of American priest Father John (Van Johnson), Brewster experiences an epiphany and changes his ways. Reverent to a fault, When in Rome could have been insufferably saccharine, but the no-nonsense performances of Paul Douglas and Van Johnson carry the day. Enhancing the film is producer-director Clarence Brown's decision -- thankfully approved by the MGM front office -- to lens much of the story on location in Rome and Vatican City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Famed French actor and singer Fernandel headlines this comedy centered on a case of mistaken identity involving a hapless vacuum salesman. Door-to-door vacuum salesman Casimir has a strange knack for getting himself into complicated situations. One day, after knocking on the door of local artist Paul-André, Casimir finds himself in his biggest jam to date. After exchanging a series of romantic letters with wealthy South American Angelita, Paul-André has agreed to tie the knot. But now that Angelita is actually coming to town, Paul-André has gotten a paralyzing case of cold feet. By the time Angelita arrives in town Paul-André is already long gone, leaving the love-struck hotel owner to surmise that Casimir is the man who won her heart through correspondence. At first Casamir isn't quite sure how to get out of the predicament, but upon discovering that Angelita owns 1000 hotel rooms he surmises that could mean she needs just as many vacuum cleaners, and continues the ruse in order to make the big sale. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide